Life Laws
by Moon Fox
Summary: DISCONTINUED
1. Default Chapter

Title: Life Law #4

Author: Moon Fox

Rating: PG

Summery: Response to a challenge by Gryphon at http://forums.moonlitpaths.com/viewtopic.php?p=63#63

Xander get sick of Sunny Dale and leaves it behind to find a new world waiting for him.

Pairings: Xander/ Jennifer Hailey

Fandoms: Buffy: TVS(character and background up till Hell's Bells in season 6 *sniffle* I haven't seen anything after that!), Stargate SG-1 (End season six)  

A/N this fic is an AU and I'm messing with the time lines a bit.  Basically Hell's Bell happens about the same time as Stargate the movie. Words PA system, or other communication device. {Words} memory, thought.  Words^ find reference at end of chapter.

Archiving: ff.net Witches love yahoo group, anywhere else, just let me know

Links: just let me know where

www.groups.yahoo.com/groups/MF_FF  sign up and find out when I update!

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Prologue: Take two and call on yourself in the morning

Xander's shoes felt heavy.  Like they were trying to keep him from walking away.  Maybe he should listen to them. Naw, he should listen to himself, if it was himself… His mind was filled to the brim with yes/no questions.  The problem was he could only come up with maybes for answers. The rain had soaked him and his tuxedo thoroughly.  He looked up now as the constant sprinkler in the sky took a breather.  He was standing in front of strip mall in downtown Sunny Dale.  The store front next to him displayed an American Flag in the window with a backdrop of medals, pictures taken out in the fields of war and peacetimes, and a neatly printed list of reasons why men and women would want to enlist and there was a banner above it all – Be an Army of One.

Growing up he watched the history channel with enthusiasm. He wanted to be a soldier, an officer…anything.  Then in his sophomore year of high school he did become a warrior – against evil.  OK so it was a pretty poor imitation of one.  He had no self-esteem, and those he was around didn't help to give him a boost of self-confidence.  A few times in the passed years he proved to himself what he was capable of.  Yet, many times, especially in the face of those he called friends, he wouldn't allow himself to believe it.  He was a soldier once for Halloween, he took down a group of undead jocks single handedly, he even spilt into two once – a competent well-adjusted and successful side, and the side he let everyone see.  It was what they all expected, even today as he was missing his own wedding.

A thought began to formulate in his mind.  Something he saw on the television the other day began to make sense.  Did any of his friends realize that three weeks ago he became twenty-two years old? Nope.  Not even his fiancé.  A strong resentment that had been growing in him over the years, started to surface.  Then four days ago the construction crew was shut down due to rain, he stayed home and watched Oprah. It was Tuesday and Dr. Phil was the guest.  Since that day the ten life lessons played over and over in his mind along with something that struck an even deeper core. One specific law –

{Life Law #4: You cannot change what you do not acknowledge.  
Strategy: Get real with yourself about life and everybody in it. Be truthful about what isn't working in your life. Stop making excuses and start making results. }

He was thinking hard about what was working for him.  What had worked for him in the past? A realization began to dawn on him.  Life worked and he worked when he was away from the scoobies.  Sure he loved them all, but it wasn't working.  It took magic and some reality twisting to act on his own with confidence.  Apart from them, he was ok. Better than ok, he actually felt like a man with a purpose to life.  He heard the jingle of bells on the door he was opening before he realized what he was doing.  A self-satisfying grin plastered itself across his face, and an air of confidence sprung into his walk.  No more excuses for the Xand-man.  It was his life, and he wanted results.


	2. Hellish daze

Chapter One: Hellish Daze (Seven years later) 

He breathed deeply of the mountain air; so different from almost anywhere else he had been stationed. He adjusted the cover on his head as he got out of the car and slung his duffle over his shoulder.  He paid the cab driver and walked to the guarded gatehouse at the Creek Mountain Base entrance, otherwise known as CMC, Cheyenne Mountain Complex.  He kept his wallet out for his ID as he approached.

After almost three hours of waiting and signing papers, and listening as MilPo called several people to verify his clearance, he was finally in.  He walked along side a Sergeant Phelps, through the bright concrete halls.  "Wow, love the décor.  Who's your designer?"  Harris commented with out thinking.

Phelps chuckled, knowing already that Captain Harris would fit in with the crowd that worked here. "We're still trying to figure it out, sir, it was like this when we got it."  

Harris laughed along with him, glad to know that at least one person here had a sense of humor. 

"Here are your quarters, sir." Phelps opened a metal non-descript door and klaxons began wailing.  The sergeant looked up as if waiting for something.

"Sierra Golf Charlie, Foothold training teams to preset positions, all non-essential personnel please evacuate to the designated holding platforms.  Sierra Golf Charlie, Foothold…" the message repeated itself a few more times.

"Sergeant?" Harris questioned.

Phelps looked around for a moment as if to get his bearings.  "This way, sir."  Then he started jogging down one of the halls.

Harris stood in confusion for a moment then began to trail his guide.   Other people ran too and fro, and soon Xander lost site of the man he was following.  All at once the warning lights and message shut off, and everyone disappeared into different doors.   He was left standing in another hall that looked like every other passage he had seen in this maze.   Leaning against a wall Harris looked up and down the corridor with a smirk.  He was SO gonna shoot someone for this and right now, Phelps seemed like the best candidate. He could have heard a pin drop, the complex was so quiet, as it was his excellent hearing picked up a sound coming from behind one of the many doors.  His mind quickly reviewed the options available.

The door opened as he ducked around a corner.  He heard the voice of a man speaking with authority and decided to have a peek around the bend in the wall.   There were five of them.  Three men, two women, the man speaking was tall and obviously a high ranking officer, though Harris couldn't see exactly what rank from his distance.  The one that caught his attention was a young lady, wearing green fatigues and cover like the rest.  Wisps of blond hair fell off of her head and onto the neckline of the flack jacket she wore.  A menacing looking weapon was held easily in her hands.  Under different circumstances Harris would have been happy to walk up to the beautiful woman and introduce himself.  He pondered the thought briefly but decided against it.

He watched as she turned to survey her surroundings and caught sight of something in his direction.  He looked in the same area she did and noticed his duffle bag still next to the wall he earlier used as a leaning post.  She tapped her CO on the shoulder and pointed silently to the discarded container.  Harris stole out of site quickly wondering what he had gotten himself into this time.  Obviously it was some sort of training exercise, the voice that echoed through the base earlier had said as much.  Yippee, he thought.

Near soundless footfalls walked guardedly closer to the corner.  The brim of a hat showed itself first and Harris did the only thing he could think of, he surrendered. With his hands out to the side in a fashion that illustrated he was unarmed he stepped out so the others could see him.  He let out a breath through pursed lips as he stood there.  Their weapons rose at him, he was about to speak when a jolt of energy hit his back.   It filtered through his body and he felt himself falling.  He heard yelling as the ground quickly met him.

He barely noticed as the blond knelt beside him to check his pulse and breathing.  He saw her mutely mouth a 'sorry' before he blacked out.


	3. OH Screw This

Chapter Two: OH SCREW THIS!

Life Law #6: There is no reality; only perception.**  
**Strategy: Identify the filters through which you view the world. Acknowledge your history without being controlled by it.**  
  
**

 "Captain Harris, can you hear me?" a feminine voice asked.  He thought it might be from the person whose fingers were currently prying open his eyelids and blinding him, but he couldn't be sure.  Not with his eyes closed.  Finally relenting, he allowed the lid to be forced open and blinded.  Ok, so he still couldn't see.  Finally as the flashlight was turned off and he opened both eyes, blinking them in rapid succession, he was able to make out various people standing around them.

He noticed the woman in the lab coat first; the silver bar of a First Lieutenant pinned on the collar of the Air Force blue button up shirt that she wore underneath the white smock.  The stethoscope around her neck and clipboard in her hand, he was fairly assured she was a corpsman.  "Captain Harris, welcome to Stargate Command." She smiled in a very patronizing manner; it left Harris with the feel that he should know something.  What it was he couldn't fathom.

"Sorry about earlier," It was the young blond officer he had seen around the corner before he became incapacitated. It was the young blond officer he had seen around the corner before everything went black.  She was pretty up close.  Not the super model style that his old friend Buffy had been – or even Cordy, but still, in her own way this woman with her dark narrow eyes and locks that curled around her ears was amazing.

He looked to the Doc for permission before sliding his legs off the gurney.  "S'ok, Lieutenant, I think." He said noticing the one gold bar. His head swam a bit before he turned back to the brunette lady with the silver.  "So, Doc?" he inquired.

"Fraiser." She finished.  "How are you feeling on your first day Captain?"

"Well, Doc, the weirdest thing, my tour guide ran off with out me.  I feel like a rat in a maze…or a human that doesn't know he's on an experimental planet created by the rats^.  Then I got electrocuted, or that's what it felt like at least."  He watched as the two ladies looked absolutely confused and smirked.

"Are you sure your not just thinking that you did because you forgot a towel?" A voice came from around the curtain near his bed.  A face soon followed, confirming Harris' suspicion that the voice sounded like the high-ranking officer he saw with the blond.  

Harris saluted, "No, sir.  Didn't forget it.  Lost it with my duffle during the drill."  

The officer smirked, "At least you didn't forget it Captain." The older man turned his smirk into a sadistic smile. "Hi, Colonel Jack O'Neill."

"Captain Alexander Harris reporting for duty, Colonel."  Harris stood acting every part the 'perfect soldier'.

"At ease, son," An older voice came from a balding man that wore two stars on each shoulder.

Harris saluted again, "Yes sir."  He sat back down on the gurney.

What followed next was a basic run-down of the happenings under the mountain in the bustling town of Colorado Springs while they walked through the halls of the complex to the briefing room.  On the way he found out that he had been hit with a zat gun, 'zat' being short for Zat'nai'whatever'thing.  One shot to stun, two would kill, and three… well he'd end up like the vampires from home when they met 'Mr. Pointy'.

An ancient artifact, boy that had a familiar ring to it, Harris thought as his head swam from the information.  Found in Egypt, then figured out a few years ago by a now deceased Dr. Daniel Jackson.  From what was said it seemed like Jackson was the equivalent of Giles from back in his days as a Scooby. Discovering what had been overlooked, researching and also keeping the peace between allies.  Jackson had been a member of the flag team for the program, SG-1, under the command of Colonel O'Neill.

The actual Stargate was a wormhole thing-a-ma-jig that transported people to other worlds.  From the look on the faces around him, it seemed they were shocked a bit by how easily he accepted the whole idea.  He found it interesting when in reference he called it a thing-a-ma-whatever, and everyone but the Colonel grimaced.  No, O'Neill glowed!  Bright like a big brother would when his younger sibling mimicked his actions.  Harris was told about some of the races of people, and humans he would meet.  

Then he was told about the Goa'uld.  They sounded too much like things he experienced in his past.  Never exactly but close enough to cause him to suppress a shiver of distaste, and those replicator things… just eww. 

 General Hammond, the two star man, concluded the briefing, "Son, you will be assigned to SG-1.  They've had a bit of a rough time finding a new member for their team."

Harris cleared his throat, "Sir, how many replacements have they had so far?"

"Almost thirty."  Hammond looked a bit confused by the question and the rest of SG-1 –Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter, and Teal'c – looked ashamed.  Ok, so Teal'c raised an eyebrow that could be…if stretched a bit guilty.  

Harris knew he had to play his cards right with this team, he saw the glint of suspicion in their eyes.  He could understand how, with all that SG-1 had been through, they would be this way with anyone.  "Sir, with all due respect, I would like to request a temporary assignment elsewhere first."  This got the attention of everyone in the room.

O'Neill jumped in before Hammond could question Harris' appeal.  "Huh? Wwhhhyyy?"

"Well, sir, I figure if I get a temporary position elsewhere, and bide my time until you have gone through at least fifty men, women, or aliens, then I might stand a better chance at success with your team.  See, by that time, you'll be sick of dealing with others.  I take liberty in assuming that General Hammond will be sick of it all by that time as well.  So when you finally get to me, you will be stuck with me." 

If they weren't twenty plus levels below ground, they would have heard crickets chirping happily away in the room.

Everyone looked away from the new kid for a bit, each lost in his or her own contemplation.  Nearly at once, the three members of SG-1 looked to each other, as if receiving confirmation and spoke together.

"He's in."

"I like him."

"Indeed."

Hammond chuckled at the scene.  A good long while had passed since the team agreed on anything.

"You still need to prove yourself, Harris." O'Neill warned.  "General, with your permission?"  He walked over to a wall that appeared to be windows with blast doors just outside them.  Hammond nodded his ascent and O'Neill opened the gray metal shields. 

Harris looked down into the gate room at the metal circle, which he could swear he'd seen before that some point, as O'Neill called through the PA system. "SG-15 you have a go."   Harris' eyes were fixed on the ring as the inner layer began to spin.  He felt the room shudder slightly as it powered up, and with a great whhooossshhh a water funnel poured out of it and towards the windows.   It calmed down after that to a shimmering pool of liquid silver.   O'Neill standing next to him heard, as SG-15 walked through it, from Harris a very quiet, "Oh screw this."

***

^ if you have absolutely no clue about this then you never met Arthur Dent or Ford Prefect.  Dent is the last human, well except for the president of the Galaxy's secretary.  And Ford… well ok its Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy… or one of the books in the series in which, after earth has been destroyed to make room for the intergalactic Highway, the white mice complain that their whole experiment, and all its data, of putting humans through various tests while observing through the mazes the humans create for the 'unsuspecting' *cough* mice, has been ruined.  As with all my references to HHG: ttG in any of my fics, thank you to the late great Douglas Adams.  We miss you! Hope you took your towel.


	4. Power and Fame

Chapter Three: Power and Fame

(AN: ok I'm screwing with the timeline some more.  Dawn was only 10 when she was created – it just fits better for what I want. Don't forget to sign up and find out when I update! www.groups.yahoo.com/groups/MF_FF ) 

He sat in the locker room his head held in his calloused hands.  He'd gone through the gate today, for the first time and as wickedly cool as it was it still scared the beggebies out of him.  His new CO, a former special forces officer, had pushed him through the shimmering liquid – laughing the whole time.  He knew it was a hazing of sort from the looks on the other two.  The feel of it brought back something that Harris thought he had left behind in Sunny Dale.  A pure rush of power, the molten silver as it slid slickly across his skin and didn't burn him.  He came through better than most on their first trip, yet that was only because he had been through worse.  Those things that he had gone through years ago, the stuff he left behind.

~~~~

He finished the test and quickly set his pencil aside.  The Master Sergeant who monitored the ASVAB testing walked over to him and looked over the test briefly wondering why the young man had finished so quickly.  What little she saw made her realize that most of the answers were correct, she smirked briefly giving the young man a nod then walked off.  She'd put in her recommendation, and let the others mark his progress through boot camp.  However she knew in less than a years time, if everything went good, she would be saluting him.

It came down to the wire.  He couldn't handle it here anymore.  The Scooby gang was officially dead.  The members weren't but what had kept them together through the years was gone.  He didn't blame Dawn, though that was when the circumstances really began to change, no he blamed Glory and the monks for that.  Then Buffy died, they brought her back.  Ripped her soul from the utopia of the beyond. Giles left them all.  He felt like it was his father that walked out the door.

 He met himself from the future, although he still wasn't sure it was him.  He left Anya at the alter and she became a vengeance demon once more.  That was when he signed the first of the papers.  Willow got addicted to magic and almost killed Dawn.  He was taking his ASVAB that night.  His mind was wracked with the 'if onlys' and 'what ifs'.  He still hadn't told anyone his plans, and then it happened two nights before he would leave on the airplane to some unknown base where he would be just another recruit, another number, at a place to start over.

Dawn called him – extremely upset.  She had just gotten home from the movies and the house looked like a tornado had ripped through it.   Upon investigation she found something no one her age should have seen, one of her friends – a part of her family lying dead.  He tried to calm her, but in the end he was the one to call 911.  Buffy was gone, Willow was missing, and Spike was no where to be found.  As he sat holding Dawn they felt it.  Powers so dark and massive, and obviously Willow.

They waited as the police had taken their statements, he told Dawn to grab her stuff explaining that she had family he was going to take her too.  And he did, putting her on the first plane to England – to Giles.  They left a note for whoever might find it.  All he knew was that she wasn't safe in Sunny Dale anymore.  He sent her off with a kiss to her forehead and a promise that when he got settled she could come stay with him any time she liked.  He stood there with his tears flowing as she left running his calloused fingers through his dark hair.  He found a phone, called Giles to explain, then went to see if anything could be salvaged from the entire situation.

He found Buffy and they found Willow.  Between the two of them they were able to pull her back from the edge…at a price.  He felt as if his own soul was being ripped from him as he walked through the bubble of power his best friend had created around herself.  The gate felt like that to a point.  He wasn't sure how they had survived – some days he wasn't sure if they did. 

 ~~~~~

Like today. He wasn't sure if he could ever do it again.  He heard someone enter the locker room, but he didn't look up.  Quiet footsteps approached him and the person sat down beside him on the bench.  He felt that persons presence as they just sat their for a while, he wished that who ever it was would just go away.  After a while they were still there and he glanced up.

Lt. Hailey gave him a sympathetic smile. "You're teams been looking for you, Captain."

"Well I've been here the whole time." He stated a bit more sourly than he really wanted to. "Sorry, its just been a bad day."

"I understand."

How could she? He wondered but she answered that with her next statement. "I have a cousin who lived in Sunny Dale.  I remembered you from a picture she sent me.  You had a rather big underground following."  She was blushing a bit and looking away.

It took a moment for the thought to register and when it did he found himself blushing as well. "I…had a fan club?"

She nodded. "My cousin was a sophomore when the school was destroyed.  Her older brother would have graduated with that class so she was there with a few of his friends and since she was part of the newspaper class she got some pictures."

Harris began to smile.  He had a following, a fan club, lackeys, young women who knew some of the things he'd done.  Subconsciously his chest puffed out a bit.  For the first time in a while he felt like he shouldn't be ashamed of what happened back in his home town.  "So," he ventured, "how much did you know about me?"

She bit the insides of her cheeks lightly and looked away mumbling. Then she turned back to him, "Um, our teams are meeting in the cafeteria.  Since both have 72's, Colonel O'Neill mentioned something about a bar-b-que at his place.  That is something I don't intend to miss."  She stood up an began to walk out of the locker room.  "You coming, Captain?"

For the first time in a long while, he knew everything right now, here in this place, would be fine.  He allowed his gaze to drop a bit, quickly glancing at something else fine… Hey he was a man, and she used to be one of his groupies.  Things definitely were looking up.

{Life Law #5: Life rewards action.  Strategy: Make careful decisions and then pull the trigger. Learn that the world couldn't care less about thoughts without actions.  
  



	5. Coming out of the Closet

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Chapter Four:  Coming Out of the Closet

{Life Law #8: We teach people how to treat us.**  
**Strategy: Own, rather than complain about, how people treat you. Learn to renegotiate your relationships to have what you want.}**  
  
  
**

In case you just tuned in: earlier tonight a man was arrested outside of the White House.   He was there demonstrating his rights.   He claimed "[he] had none.   I am a vampire," he said, "it is a grievous disability, and I want more consideration for myself and those like me.  We deserve to be treated as humans." a recorded scene played out behind the broadcaster. The man was taken in to custody and is being held with out bail pending charges of: disrupting the peace, unlicensed demonstrating, and waking the President.  The commentator gave a smirk out to the audience.  Since then many others have come forward to support and protest this man's claim.  

Scene cuts to a man that appears in his early thirties Yeah, I'm a vampire.  I was bitten almost sixty years ago, I was in Europe after World War two.   This woman came to me and asked if I would speak to her.  I did, she told me what she was.  I didn't believe her, but we dated for two years and she finally convinced me.   She asked me if I wanted to be like her.  I said 'sure' as a joke you know…

Scene cuts back to commentator Along with Vampires there have also been reports of were-wolves, leopards, rats, and various other forms of Lie-can- trop-pee.

On the couch in front of a TV "That's pronounced Lah-can-TH-ropy! Hello!" Others in the room looked at the speaker weirdly.

Scene on TV shifts to another young man with red hair  "I'm a were-wolf."

A woman's voice from behind the camera asked, "How do you live your life with this disease?"

He shrugged, "I just get fuzzy once a month, no biggie. You should come to Gerard's tonight and see my band."

"You have a band?"

"Dingo's Ate My Baby."

Couch "OZ?!?!"  The dark haired man exclaimed.   

"You know him?"  An older man asked.

 The dark haired one nodded,  "I never…"

"Never knew he was a Lan… Lysin… Were-wolf?"

"Oh I knew that, I never thought he'd be so…public about it."

A large black man raised an eyebrow, "Captain Harris, are you to say you knew these creatures existed on your world?"

"Ah, yep." Harris answered.

A young blond with curly hair snickered.


End file.
